Vaccine centres stay open today

National tally of active Covid cases declines to 87,423

ISLAMABD:

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has decided to continue the Covid-19 vaccination process on Wednesday (today), the 9th of Muharram, reversing its decision of closure on both days of Ashura holidays, sources have said.

The NCOC had announced earlier that the vaccination would be suspended on 9th and 10th of Muharram on account of Youm-e-Ashur. However, it decided on Tuesday that the centres would be open for administering the vaccines on Wednesday (today) and observe a closed holiday on Thursday (tomorrow).

The government has stepped up the vaccination campaign in recent months in the wake of the emergence of a deadlier and fast spreading fourth wave of Covid pandemic, driven by the Indian-origin Delta variant of coronavirus.

The NCOC – the synchronised government strategy against the pandemic spread – said on Tuesday that the national tally of active Covid-19 cases declined to 87,423 from more than 88,000 on Monday on the back of more than 4,000 people recovering from the disease during the past 24 hours.

During the past 24 hours, the NCOC said in its daily update, 3,221 more people tested positive for the virus, while 4,291 people recovered from the disease. It added that 4,896 patients are under treatment in critical condition, including 492 on ventilators, while 109 new patients were admitted in the past 24 hours.

The forum said that 85 patients, of them 75 in hospitals, including 43 on ventilators, died during the past 24 hours, raising the nationwide death toll to 24,573. It added that most of the deaths, 40, occurred in Punjab, followed by 36 in Sindh.

The national positivity ratio during the past 24 hours was recorded at 6.6%, the NCOC said. Since the pandemic outbreak, it said, 1,105,300 cases had been detected including 993,304 recoveries. Overall, 16,950,196 tests had been conducted so far.